Drill bit for Kitchen door Hinges

[Séan Connolly]

What's the name of the drill bit you use for making the hole for a kitchen door hinge ?

The holes for the hinges on our door don't match with the hinges on the integrated washing machine.

Ta!

Séan

[Peter Andrews]

Forster

Peter

[Séan Connolly]

Can't find any reference to that name anywhere.

[Peter Andrews]

Sorry - can't type/spell try Forstner

See:

[Ed Sirett]

Hinge Hole Cutters. Come is 26mm and 35mm sizes. See Screwfix part 11596

However you really need a pillar drill to use them. I have been successful using a 35mm hole saw for 5mm or so (making sure the centre guide drill is no longer than it needs to be). Then carefully chisel out the inside. Then you can use the hinge cutter in the 5mm depression with an ordinary drill/cordless. I suppose you could use the hole saw all the way to depth (after removing the centre drill) but the bottom of the hole might be too rough after chiselling.

[soup]

that link Peter there is a dedicated hinge boring bit , it is twice the price of a set of Fostner bits. Does anyone know why dedicated hinge boring bits would be used rather than standard (of the right size ob.) Fostner bits?

[sPoNiX]

Machine Mart stock one and call it a "35mm hinge boring bit". (Wolfcraft 3302 060233302, £5.86)

sponix

[Andy Jeffries]

AFAIK it's because they have even less of a centre boring spike. This is important when trying to drill a flat bottomed hole in a potentially thin door (you don't want a small pilot hole going through the front of your door).

There's also the scribes on the sides that help create a clean hole, but I wouldn't worry about that too much - I'm sure they may help slightly, but forstner bits normally produce a clean sided hole anyway IME...

Cheers,

Andy

[Peter Andrews]

> On that link Peter there is a dedicated hinge boring bit , it is twice

I don't know - I've had a small selection of both for more years than I care to remember :-(

Peter

[Séan Connolly]

right! Thanks for that :)

[Adrian Brentnall]

Or a router (at a push !) - and assuming that the collet on your router fits the shaft on the hole cutter.

Might want to clamp the router to the workpiece to save it from skating about !

Regards Adrian Suffolk UK ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Séan Connolly]

Eeek, they're rather expensive. For three holes (wickes don't make doors that match the fridge-freezers they sell, go figure), its prolly better to pay someone to do it. Less chance of a door looking like a slice of Emental !

[Lobster]

Ideally, sure, but I've fitted such doors in the past perfectly successfully using an ordinary old hand-held Black and Decker drill (with no disasters - ie trashed doors - en route, I might add.

David

[Andy Hall]

There are two.

1) The sizes in a standard set of bits often don't have the hinge bore sizes.

2) Dedicated hinge bits often have either a mark or a depth of the wide part which matches the depth of the hinge. That way, you know how far to drill.

However.....

You could use a standard Forstner bit of the correct size.

Either way, being careful about the depth is obviously critical. Don't forget that there is a little spur in the centre of the bit. You don't want a small hole in the front of the door any more than a large one.

You really do need to use a drill press or some kind of drill stand to make sure that the hole really is perpendicular, although you might just get away with somebody else holding a square as you drill. WIth a drill press you can easily practice and set the depth stop using a piece of scrap of the same thickness as the door. With a hand held arrangement, it's a case of going a little at a time until the hinge just fits.

Fortunately, Forstner bits are rather better behaved than spade bits in that there is less tendency for the drill to be pulled skew.

[Chris Bacon]

Forstner. Aldi have some for a couple of quid which might do you for this. I haven't tried them B. Mtwt. thinks they're pants.

You can cut holes with a gouge, if you're reasonably careful.

[zymurgy]

Y'know I read 3/4 of this thread thinking 'why does he want to drill a hole in the hinge on his washing machine'.

Hence me being even more confused when people were suggesting forstner bits and small hole saws :-)

Oh well, it's early morning.

P=2E

[chris French]

Have to say I did fine doing it hand held. Just need to take the necessary care

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Dunno - but B&Q sell them among the router bits. Think it was just called a kitchen hinge cutter. You really need a pillar drill to use one properly, though.

[Séan Connolly]

LOL!

Trust me, the way this install is going it wouldn't surprise me to have to start drilling into the washig machine.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

As a supplementary on this thread, I had to trim some doors to fit so had to drill new hinge holes. The trimming was such that the old hole was exposed on the new edge. What would be the neatest way to fill it? I realise you can get plastic plugs for a 'full' spare hole. I have a couple of spare drawer fronts - what's the chances of cutting a plug from them? And where would I get a suitable cutter?